Marching into stores with little fanfare last year, Zoids Assault seemed like a strange game to release in the US, even for a company that prides itself on pandering to extreme niches like Atlus USA. The game isn't based on any iteration of the Zoids license that's made it to the US; hell, it's not even the most popular XBox 360 Zoids game in Japan. But nevertheless, Atlus ported it, a bare bones classical turn based strategy RPG with a 14 mission story mode and no multiplayer. The only downloadable content to date has been paint jobs for your Zoids. The game was critically shellacked and disappeared quickly, but not before I picked it up.

The reviews aren't lying- for the most part, Zoids Assault is a relentlessly mediocre old school move and shoot across the tiny squares. But there are things about it that make it a surprisingly not terrible experience, and worth a bit of a second look for turn based strategy fans.

Zoids has gone throught many, many different takes, but the one contsant, of course, are the "Zoic Androids"- giant gun wielding robots in animal shapes (usually T-Rexes or Lions). The original "Battle Story" for the toy line in the mid-80s was about the conflict on the planet Zi between the Republic of Helic and the Guylos empire, with Zoids as the weapon of choice. In Zoids Assault (Known as Zoids Alternative in Japan), it's ten years after the cease fire that ended the Three Year War in November 964, where Helic soundly defeated Guylos.

The neighboring nations of Maroll and Jamil were caught up in the conflict, after the Guylos backed Jamil launched a surprise attack on Marroll, an ally of Helic. Jamil was soundly defeated in the ensuing conflict, and tense normalization talks between the two countries have continued in the past decade. In December 974, Staff Sergeant Jessica Lambert of the Marollian Special Ops team "Katana" gives a debriefing to Maroll's parliament about her recent mission... into Jamil.

I'll discuss the story a bit more later, but while the Katana team is the focus of the story, the focus of the gameplay is on the MACE squad, a group of five Maroll soliders whose path crosses with Jamil forces early on and leads to their accompanying Katana on their mission. MACE is an utterly unremarkable group- there's the lead guy, and four other guys. Throughout the game's fourteen missions, you can pretty much set their roles to lead guy with machine gun, secondary guy with machine gun, fast guy with bazooka/sniper rifle, tank guy with bazooka/sniper rifle/grenade launcher, and guy with healing abilities. The game keeps you with these five characters throughout; there's no variation except in what abilities you gain and weapons and paint jobs for your Zoids. You rarely have to go with any other weapon than what your characters start with- there are plenty of alternative methods of fire but the ones you start with get the job done the best.

Mission structure is similarly rote; about three quarters of the game are simple "kill the hell out of the other guys" as MACE squad finds itself cornered and running interference for Katana. There are occasional variations, though. What's a constant in EVERY mission however is that kill a certain amount of enemies, an alarm goes off and MACE finds itself surrounded on all sides by more enemy Zoid mechs. It soon becomes clear that this is less of a way to ramp up the challenge than to just pad out the game length, which would be awfully short, if so many of the missions didn't play out the way they do.

You usually recieve a small briefing before each mission, but that's usually not enough to figure out how to make a mission go smoothly. Often times, you'll wipe out on a new mission just because you didn't realize what was the approach the game wanted you to take. So nearly every mission is simple trial and error, or letting your team get smashed to the point of near death, then exiting the mission with all the experience you gained to boost your stats. I suspect you will find yourself doing this more often than you would like.

The gameplay is pleasingly old school, however, if you're into that sort of thing. It's top down grid based, with points given for movement and attack, etc. The controls are decent and the camera, unlike Atlus' other 2008 military strategy RPG, Operation Darkness, can actually be adjusted. The game also throws in a new wrinkle that helps the gameplay immensely- the scan system. Basically, you position your Zoids in certain ways so multiple members of your team are in range of enemies. That way, your team can fire off devatstating chain attacks. It really causes the player to think more strategically than most old school strat games usually do. This doesn't make the repetitive nature of the battles any less grating, but it does alleviate things somewhat.

"Old School" is a good descriptor of the game's graphics. It's not that the game is particularly ugly, but it's awfully simple- in fact, if it weren't for the fluid animation, it could pass for a particularly advanced Super NES game. Colors are uniformly drab dark green and blue, and the environments run from desert to forest to... more desert and more forest. Granted, that's sort of the narrative- MACE and Katana ae trying to make it through the Jamilan countryside undetected- but it makes for a bland experience. There's also the matter of tone- this is a very bleak game, sory wise (more on that later)- but it doesn't quite work. The game at least offers you ways to spruce up the paint jobs on your mechs to tell them apart. The cinematics for Zoid actions are all done in this grainy filter which probably sounded like a good idea at first glance, but just looks distracting and had me skipping every attack cinematic. The Zoids designs are pretty The story cinematics are told with still pictures with voiceovers. Really. In 2008. There is a bit of animation, but mostly it's the same static shots of characters. Now this thankfully doesn't hurt the story, but it astounds me that the developer Tomy took such a minimalist tack on a next gen system. The voiceover work is good, the music is bland and inoffensive.

"Bland and inoffensive" is probably the best way to describe Zoids Assault. The game is bad, but not bad enough to make one snap their controller and plot elaborate ways to murder Atlus for porting it. The game is bland, but not bland enough that I didn't complete the playthrough. It's kind of hard to believe they released this game at full price given how little content there is. Why isn't there any multiplayer? Practically the only incentive to play the game more than once is the achievements gained from defeating the hidden bosses... too bad the game gives you barely any hints on how to even discover said bosses.

So with all the bad things I have to say about it, why does Zoids Assault score a near six with me? Well, it's because of the other reason to play the game more than once- the story. The game opens with a strange cinematic of a discussion between Zoid pilots on the day of the cease fire. The scene is done with a static image that flits in an out, adding to the suspense. It's as confusing as it is compelling.

Then Lambert's story begins, and what we get is a surprisingly deep, cynical, and lengthy tale of war and politics, of backroom deals and lives held as collateral in said deals. As unexciting as the cut scenes are at first glance, the repeated use of images gets to you. Who's that mysterious individual watching in the observation room? Why did Lambert and Leon Faulkner, leader of Katana, feel the need to keep things secret from the Maroll high command? The game uses news articles and other bits of information to slowly but surely tell the true story behind the aftermath war between Maroll and Jamil. Like the layers of an onion, each revelation stings more than the last. Considering how many modern day military games focus on some magical Russian/Islamic allied techno-juggernaut that would never occur in any known reality, it's funny how a game using fictional countries manages to be darker and more honest about the true players in today's wars- the politicians. What happens behind the scenes usually determines how things go more than simple right and wrong. Don't misunderstand- there's a clear villain in this game. But it is, as they say, a lot more complicated than that.

The voicework is a good boon to the game- there's only two real main characters, Lambert and Faulker. There were no credits  for the invdividual actors that I recall, but I'm fairly certain that Richard Epcar, best known as Jigen from Lupin 3rd, Joker from Mortal Kombat Vs. DC Universe, and the beloved Batou from Ghost in the Shell, is Faulkner. Both actors playing Lambert and Faulkner have a tough job but pull it off well.

The game also has one of the darkest, saddest endings I've seen in in any game ever. It's amazing how this medicore strategy game was about to make me feel something, but it's that story that is the hook, and kept me going through every repetitive mission. That doesn't make Zoids Assault a great game, or even a good one, but I'll be thinking about the fate of MACE squad long after my memories of the tired gameplay fade away.

Tags

Zoids Assault Xbox 360

Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe Xbox 360

Operation Darkness Xbox 360